NEW DELHI (TIP): The government has refused to declassify at least 87 top secret files containing information about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, essentially on grounds that they are of “sensitive nature” that could be a problem for “India‘s relations with other countries”.

This came up in a written reply from minister of state for home Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary in Rajya Sabha last month. The minister was replying to questions from Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who had asked how many files relating to Bose are lying with the government and whether the government is considering declassifying any of them.

In his reply, Chaudhary said while there are 60 top secret files on Netaji Bose with the Prime Minister’s Office, of which only two have been declassified and sent to the National Archives, there are 29 files with the external affairs ministry, which the government is “not considering to declassify”. In his reply to the House on December 17, 2014, the minister said,
“As informed by the ministry of external affairs, they are not considering to declassify the records and sending it to the National Archives. As informed by the Prime Minister’s Office, they have 60 files related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, out of which two top secret files have been declassified and sent to the National Archives.” “The ministry of external affairs has informed that the information contained in these files is of sensitive nature and bringing this information in the public domain at this juncture is not desirable from the point of view of India’s relations with other countries,” said the reply.

Chaudhary informed the House that the Union government had so far set up two commissions – Justice Khosla Commission and Justice M K Mukherjee Commission – to inquire into the “disappearance of Subhas Bose” on September 11, 970 and May 14, 1999 respectively.